Alternative Measures of Homeownership Gaps Across Segregated Neighboorhoods

The dramatic rise in the U.S. homeownership rate from 64% in 1996 to almost 70% in 2005 has prompted increased attention to the relation between homeownership and demographic characteristics of households. The recent rise and sharp decline of subprime lending will likely spur interest in the relation between credit conditions and homeownership gaps. Statistical analysis of these differences or “gaps” in homeownership between white and minority households follows what has become a highly stylized pattern. Essentially differences in homeownership at the mean or the conditional mean between groups are compared. This study implements a new decomposition technique that identifies the unexplained portion of the gap not only at the mean, but at every percentile of the distribution of the dependent variable. This method was first proposed by Machado and Mata (2005), extended by Albrecht et al. (2006), and has been used in several applications in labor economics. Similar to the labor market application, differences in homeownership gaps at the mean reflect a combination of non- significant differences at the upper end and much larger gaps at the lowest end of the distribution of homeowners.Homeownership, Race, Quantile regression decomposition

Efficient Delivery of Cash Transfers to the Poor: Improving the Design of a Conditional Cash Transfer Program in Equador

Many governments provide monetary transfers to low-income families. The mechanism through which these subsidies are distributed may contain several inefficiencies that diminish the net-value obtained by the recipients. In this paper, we build and estimate a behavioral dynamic model that allows us to evaluate the efficiency of current and alternative distribution mechanisms. The proposed model is simple and resembles the individual’s decision to collect the transfer. To estimate it, we use data from a cash transfer program in Ecuador where recipients incur high transaction costs each time they collect their benefits. Despite its simplicity, our model is able to replicate the observed data remarkably well. We use it to simulate alternative payment mechanisms and show that an adequate design of the delivery of payments can substantially increase the value of cash transfer programs.Cash Transfer Programs, Behavioral Model, Distribution of Payments

Public Information and Household Expectations in Developing Countries: Evidence From a Natural Experiment

Governments provide public information about economic conditions to reduce information imperfections and facilitate efficient allocation of resources. Do households in developing countries rely on public signals to inform themselves about market conditions? To identify the importance of public information in households’ price expectations, we take advantage of a unique natural experiment in Ecuador where the published inflation rate had been different from the true rate over a period of 14 months due to a software error. We find that the public signal about prices plays an important role in households’ price expectations; the effect is stronger for better educated families, older people and men.Public Information, Price Expectations, Developing Countries, Natural Experiment, Heterogeneity

Mantenerse público o privatizar? Análisis comparativo del servicio de agua entre Quito y Guayaquil

En el presente documento se analiza la evolución de algunos indicadores sobre la provisión de agua potable en las dos principales ciudades de Ecuador. En Quito, el agua potable ha sido administrada directamente por la municipalidad mientras que en Guayaquil estos servicios fueron privatizados. El estudio compara varios índices de cobertura, calidad, y precios del agua potable, antes y después de la privatización, y entre estas dos ciudades. Los resultados sugieren que después de la privatización, a) el nivel de cobertura de agua potable en Guayaquil ha disminuido en comparación con el de Quito, particularmente dentro del grupo económico más pobre (primer quintil del ingreso); b) la presión del agua en Guayaquil ha disminuido en comparación a la Quito; y, c) el precio promedio del agua es más alto y ha aumentado a un ritmo más elevado en Guayaquil. Se advierte que estos resultados deben ser interpretados con mucha cautela ya que Quito no constituye un grupo de control adecuado para identificar el efecto causal de la privatización. Para ilustrar este argumento, se describe que las tendencias de cobertura de agua potable y la tasa de migración urbano-rural han sido radicalmente diferentes en las dos ciudades. Así mismo, por medio de un análisis institucional exhaustivo, se determina que las dos compañías son muy diferentes y que, asimetrías en su estructura institucional podrían explicar una gran parte de los resultados. El artículo concluye que en la década pasada, los servicios de agua potable en Quito han mejorado relativamente a los de Guayaquil; sin embargo, se enfatiza que el atraso relativo de la empresa Guayaquileña no puede ser atribuido exclusivamente a su privatización.

Information Technology and Student Achievement: Evidence from a Randomized Experiment in Ecuador

This paper studies the effects of information and communication technologies (ICT) in the school environment on educational achievement. To quantify these effects, the impact is evaluated of a project run by the municipality of Guayaquil, Ecuador, which provides computer-aided instruction in mathematics and language to students in primary schools. Using an experimental design, it is found that the program had a positive impact on mathematics test scores (about 0.30 of a standard deviation) and a negative but statistically insignificant effect on language test scores. The impact is heterogeneous and is much larger for those students at the top of the achievement distribution.Information and communications technology, Education, Experimental design, Ecuador

When will we learn: key factors and potential barriers

The overall aim of this research was to improve the dissemination of Lessons Learned in construction projects so that contractors’ project teams have access to the most relevant lessons at the most appropriate time, in the most appropriate format. The outcome of the research aimed to provide (1) an understanding of the different systems and tools used for recording Lessons Learned amongst major construction contractors; (2) an understanding of the needs in terms of what sort of lessons are required, the level of detail required and how best these should be made available; and (3) an approach on how best to disseminate Lessons Learned. The key objectives of the research were to: 1. Investigate current practice for recording and disseminating Lessons Learned; 2. Identify potential barriers for successfully disseminating Lessons Learned; and 3. Identify key factors affecting company processes to encourage a more systematic dissemination of Lessons Learned. The study was conducted in three phases. The first investigated contractors’ current practices for recording and disseminating Lessons Learned through a questionnaire survey. The second phase identified key factors that would encourage the institutionalisation of Lessons Learned and also the factors that inhibit their use. The third phase examined how current processes could be adapted to develop a process that would embed the systematic dissemination of Lessons Learned within an organisation’s existing practices. This report focuses on the second stage of the project that identified from the end users those factors that would encourage the institutionalisation of Lessons Learned and also the factors that inhibit their use of Lessons Learned

Taxes, Prisons, and CFOs: The Effects of Increased Punishment on Corporate Tax Compliance in Ecuador

This paper takes advantage of a rich firm level data set from Ecuador to analyze the effects of a reform in 2007 that introduced imprisonment for tax evasion and made a firm’s CFO liable for tax-crimes. Our dataset contains actual tax-return and financial-statement information for the universe of corporations in Ecuador from 2003 to 2007. We study the effects of higher punishment both at the intensive and extensive margins. We combine a difference-in-difference-in-difference approach with the DiNardo, Fortin and Lemieux decomposition method. This allows us to estimate the heterogeneous effects of the reform across the distribution of firms. We find that, at the intensive margin the reform led to an average 10% increase in real corporate tax payments. However, positive effects are only found at the right tail of the tax distribution (above the 75th percentile). At the extensive margin, the probability of entry into the tax-net increased, but most of the firms that entered the tax net claimed zero taxes.Tax evasion, corporate tax compliance, tax reform, developing country, punishment, Ecuador

Do Cheaters Bunch Together? Profit Taxes, Withholding Rates and Tax Evasion

We use firm-level administrative data from Ecuador to study the implications of 'reverse withholding' for firms' tax behavior. Withholding does not affect tax liability of firms, but it may result in a discontinuity in the audit probability around the withholding threshold. Exploiting variation in withholding rates across industries and over time, we find that firms' profit taxes concentrate near the withholding rate. To explore the link between bunching and evasion, we use data from third party reports on sales and costs. We show that the firms that bunch are more likely to conceal their sales and inflate their costs. Finally, we create a profile of the firms that bunch and of their general managers: medium size firms in the coastal region headed by single males are significantly more likely to bunch and, presumably, to evade taxes.Withholding, Reverse Withholding, Firms, Profit Tax, Bunching, Tax Evasion, Ecuador

A Panel of Price Indices for Housing, Other Goods, and All Goods for All Areas in the United States 1982-2008

This paper produces a panel of price indices for housing, other produced goods, and all produced goods for each metropolitan area in the United States and the non-metropolitan part of each state from 1982 through 2008 that can be used for estimating behavioral relationships, studying the workings of markets, and assessing differences in the economic circumstances of people living in different areas. Our general approach is to first produce cross-sectional price indices for a single year 2000 and then use BLS time-series price indices to create the panel. Our geographic housing price index for 2000 is based on a large data set with detailed information about the characteristics of dwelling units and their neighborhoods throughout the United States that enables us to overcome many shortcomings of existing interarea housing price indices. For most areas, our price index for all goods other than housing is calculated from the price indices for categories of non-housing goods produced each quarter by the Council for Community and Economic Research. In order to produce a non-housing price index for areas of the United States not covered by their index, we estimate a theoretically-based regression model explaining differences in the composite price index for non-housing goods for areas where it is available and use it to predict a price of other goods for the uncovered areas. The overall consumer price index for all areas is based on the preceding estimates of the price of housing and other goods. The paper also discusses existing interarea price indices available to researchers, and it compares the new housing price index with housing price indices based on alternative methods using the same data and price indices based on alternative data sets. Electronic versions of the price indices are available online.Interarea price indices, interarea housing price indices, geographic cost-of-living differences, geographic price differences

Optimización de una celda de flotación

Flotation is one of the most used mineral concentration processes in the mining industry. Regarding the flotation process, there are three zones: agitation, intermediate and superior that are affected by the different hydrodynamic conditions of the flotation cell. The influence of the bubble surface area flux (Sb) is a parameter that describes the efficiency of the gas dispersion in the flotation cells, since it affects the agitation zone where the collision occurs, and the adsorption begins of the particles...La flotación es uno de los procesos de concentración de minerales más utilizados en la industria minera. En cuanto al proceso de flotación se tiene tres zonas: agitación, intermedia y superior que se ven afectadas por las diferentes condiciones hidrodinámicas que tiene la celda de flotación. La influencia de la superficie de área de flujo de dispersión de las burbujas (Sb) es un parámetro que describe la eficiencia de la dispersión del gas en las celdas de flotación, ya que afecta en la zona de agitación donde se produce la colisión y empieza la adsorción de las partículas..